


Gold Under Gravel, Gone to Earth

by Brynhildr



Series: NaNoWriMo 2015: Avengers Oneshots [2]
Category: Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Coulson Lives, Gen, Implied/Referenced Torture, NaNoWriMo, One Shot, Past Torture, Team Dynamics, Team as Family, dragon - Freeform, dragon!Tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-12
Updated: 2016-03-12
Packaged: 2018-05-26 05:05:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,476
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6225112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brynhildr/pseuds/Brynhildr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony's normal... except for the scales. And wings. And the ability to breathe fire. Because he's a dragon.<br/>Yeah... maybe that's something he should mention to his team.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Gold Under Gravel, Gone to Earth

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from the end of Seamus Heaney's translation of Beowulf. 
> 
> Part of my NaNoWriMo series, written on Day 4 with the self-given prompts Tony + Phil + unwanted transformation ( dragon )

 Tony had trust issues.

 This was well known and highly documented.

 But there were reasons for those trust issues. It wasn't just a billionaire with his quirks and inability to let anyone close. He'd been burned too many times. Literally.

Being a dragon when the world doesn't think you exist can be a pain in the tail. He was fine a thousand years ago. Dragons were commonplace. Well, maybe not common place, but humans had a healthy fear and respect for the flying reptilian creatures. 

Tony's old. Very old. A few thousand years old. And he's very wealthy. When you live a long time, you can accumulate quite some wealth. His hoard had grown and grown over the past thousand years and he's one of the most feared and respected members of society. Feared by evil doers and respected by scientists and engineers. Well, and people love him because he throws money at them. Humans are like that. The dragon understood the lure of wealth, of gold and jewels.

So it was a surprise to Tony, as much as everyone else, when he extended an invitation to the other Avengers to live with him in his tower.

 The had all accepted, some with more reservations than others, and over several months had become comfortable with other team members. He let his guard down. Became too comfortable. 

So when Tony wakes up one morning and stumbles his way to the kitchen after a three-day science bender and only three hours sleep, he freaks out when confronted with a very alive Agent Philip Coulson sitting at his breakfast counter and eating a slice of buttered toast.

 He doesn't realize he has shifted into his scaly form, until the agent raises an eyebrow and comments, "I understand the trust issues now".

Tony huffs and puffs of smoke escape from his nostrils.

"Seriously?" He whines. "You're confronted with an enormous red dragon and you want to talk about my _trust issues_?" He stalks back through the living room, pushing furniture out of the way with his wings.

"Well, it also explains why your penthouse is so huge." Coulson says calmly as he follows the frustrated dragon into the room.

"Yes, well I can't be bashing through walls every time I need to stretch my wings," Tony replied as he circled around himself, not unlike a dog, and sat on the floor in front of the large fireplace.

 "What brings your not-dead self to my penthouse this morning, Agent Agent? Hmm?" Tony smirked. "Fury sent you over to check on the team, didn't he?" At Coulson's nod, he chuckled.

 "The team is doing fine, Agent Agent. We're all working together better and we haven't had a prank war yet this week."

 Coulson smiled, "well, that's good news. I was actually sent over by Fury to be your new SHIELD liaison. Agent Williams requested a transfer to Canada after the magnetic glitter bomb incident 2 weeks ago and I was approved this morning. Fury thinks I'll be able to corral the team. That, and I miss my lunch dates with Miss Potts. No one else has an appreciation for my ability to handle adult size toddlers with efficiency."

Tony barked a laugh, sparks landing on the hearth.

"I bet you had a lot of practice with Barton before you ever met me."

"Of course," Coulson replied. "Why do you think I carry a taser around in the first place. It was the only way to get the man to stop terrorizing the break rooms."

"So dear old Director Fury wants you to keep an eye on us. Report back that we aren't about to start World War III." Tony smirked. "You aren't going to tell him about me."

 "No," Coulson replied. "If you have kept your own secret this long, I'm not the one who will destroy the life you have built." He paused. "Does the team know?"

 "No," Tony answered. "I was afraid they wouldn't want me on the team if they knew I wasn't exactly human."

 "Your team contains a god-like alien and a green angry giant. How could you think they wouldn't accept you?"

 Coulson looked genuinely perplexed at the thought of that Tony's other team members might reject him if they uncovered his secret.

"It's not as if you were going around eating people," he paused. "You aren't eating people are you?"

 Tony laughed. 

"Not eating people at all, Agent."

 He shifted into his human form, the change happening in the blink of an eye and completely silent.

"I just really don't want to be tortured, or set on fire, or experimented on again," Tony said after a beat. He sat down on a comfy white sofa and gestured for Phil to do the same.

"The only way to kill a dragon," Tony tapped his arc reactor. "The heart."

 Coulson nodded his head.

"Afghanistan was terrifying for me. I had a piece of metal shoved through a hole cut in my sternum and the only thing I could think about was what would happen if I turned. Would I die? Would the metal shrapnel move and harm some other part of my insides? Carve out my lungs maybe? I was always on edge." He ran a hand over his face in a tired, world weary motion.

"I've been tortured before. The witch hunts were never fun for those of us who didn't age too much, or those who didn't agree with those in authority. I've had my hands broken and my nails pulled out. I've had the blood drained from my body and been thrown into lakes with weights on my neck. But being waterboarded with an electromagnet in my chest, in a cave underground, surrounded by a lot of people trying to kill me if I don't cooperate? Not a great place to inadvertently transform. Had to stay in human form to escape."

 Tony looked at Phil for a few moments.

"But you freaked me out enough that I transformed here in my house."

Coulson looked rather pleased with himself at that information. If a twitch of the lips could be considered an emotion. 

"How did you get past JARVIS without alarms going off?"

Coulson chuckled.

"JARVIS and I have an... Understanding. I am here to help you, whether you believe it or not, and as your AI has no body, he allowed me to become a part of your 'mother hen' team. I believe our number has only grown in the past few months with the Avengers now residing in your tower. You have people that care about you, whether you want them to or not, Tony. "

"I must agree," came JARVIS' British voice. "Agent Coulson, though his hacking my servers repeatedly is disagreeable, has many positive traits that would enable him to assist me in fulfilling my prime directive: to assist you and keep you safe, Sir."

"I would trust the team with the secret, if I were you," Coulson continued. "They are probably the most likely to understand and least likely to tell anyone."

Tony considered his idea for a moment, turning all the possibilities over in his head and all the myriad outcomes.

"Alright, I'll tell them, but give me some time." He stood. "Let me show you to your floor, as I assume you will be staying with us as SHIELD / Avengers liaison."

"That would be much appreciated," Coulson replied, following the goateed man into the elevator.

 ...............

 Tony was sitting in his darkened bedroom when Pepper returned from the airport. Her flight had been delayed and the weather had made it too difficult to make a small craft land on the landing pad at the Tower. 

She dropped her suitcase and draped her jacket over a chair, leaving a trail of expensive shoes to the bed.

"Tony, why are you sitting here with the lights off?" Pepper switched the bedside lamp on and sat down next to the dazed looking inventor. "Did something happen?"

 Tony nodded, then shook his head.

"Nothing bad. Actually, a very good thing." He turned and grasped his girlfriend's delicate hand in his calloused ones. "I had a nice chat with our new SHIELD liaison -"

 "Really, a _nice_ chat?" She smirked.  

"No really, I was nice, considering. I mean, he did freak me out and never explained the whole not-dead thing, but most importantly he told me about your lunch dates." He turned to the redhead. "I can't believe you have lunch dates with Agent Agent and didn't tell me. Didn't invite me! I can't -"

"Tony! Tony, Stop!" Pepper said digging her nails into his palm.

"Phil's alive?" She asked with tears in her eyes.

"Yes! And he didn't explain how," Tony replied. "Wait. What are you doing?" He asked when she jumped out of bed.

"I'm going to go find him and give him a piece of my mind for not telling me he was alive!" She yelled.

 "Wait, Pep! Its 2:51 in the morning! You can't just wake him up. Let him sleep!" Tony jumped up after her, clinging to her wrist. "He's five floors down. You can accost him in the morning."

Pepper deflated and sat back down on the bed. After a few moments she was relaxed enough that Tony was able to maneuver her back into a more comfortable position.

"So, Agent might know my little secret now." Tony said after a while.

 "That you own more Captain America merchandise than he does? And have a fanboy crush on Mr Red White and Blue? Oh, he knows." Pepper said with a laugh.

"Umm ..." Tony trailed off. "My other little secret." He paused. "My scaly secret."

 "What!?!" Pepper screeched as she jumped out of bed. "Are you okay? Is he okay? Does SHIELD know? I'll kill them -"

 "Pep, Pep its okay!" Tony caught her hand. "He seemed startled, but took it all in stride. Anyone who befriends my CEO girlfriend is OK in my book. Phil thinks I should tell the others though. That they might understand."

 Pepper looked at him with concern.

"Only if you're sure." She hugged him tight. "Let's get some sleep and we can figure out who to tell first in the morning."

..................

Pepper was drinking her coffee in front of the TV, watching the stocks go up and down. She had a slight frown on her face, but didn't seem overly concerned.

The elevator opened with a light ding and she turned with a smile to face the agent sheepishly walking to her sofa.

"Pepper," Phil said quietly. "I'm so sorry." He sat down next to her and she sighed. 

"You better thank Tony later. I was about to smack you across the face and then cry on you for hours when I heard you were still alive."

 She gave him a brief but warm hug. 

"Now, instead we're going to talk about our scaly friend and how to introduce him to the rest of the team." Phil smiled.

"So he _is_ going to do it, I'm glad."

 Pepper nodded.

 "I think Dr. Banner is probably the first person we should get him to talk to. He would understand the secrecy at least."

 "I'm going down to the lab," Tony called from the bedroom down the hall. "I have a science date with a handsome brunette and a Geiger counter!"

 "Be safe!" Pepper called after him.

 "So," she turned to Phil. "Want some help with rounding up the kids?"

 Phil sighed. 

 "I knew Fury was putting me on babysitting duty; I didn't realize everyone else knew it too."

 "Well the last three agents never made it more than a few days, after agent Williams left." Pepper smiled. "They're a bit easier to handle if they respect you."

"I'll take all the help I can get," Phil replied, straightening his tie.

 ..................

"Brucie Bear! You started without me!" Tony exclaimed as he practically flounced into the scientist's separated lab area on one of the top research and development floors.

Bruce smiled as he looked up from his microscope.

 "I didn't know how long you were going to be with Pepper being back. She may have roped you into an SI board meeting."

 "No, say it ain't so! You doubt that I would remember our science date?!" Tony asked with a mocking gasp. "It's like you don't know me at all!"

He sat down on the edge of the table, careful not to mess up any of the stacked petri dishes. 

"I do have something important to tell you though," he said seriously. Bruce looked at the serious look in his eye and nodded.

 "Jarvis, save all my work and blackout the privacy screens," he said. 

 After a moment all the windows had become an opaque white and the recording devices had shut off.

"Ok," he said, turning to the inventor. "Go ahead." 

Tony smiled.

 "Bruce, you would consider me a friend, correct?" Tony began. At Bruce's nod, he continued. "I haven't been entirely truthful about something and I feel like you should know."

"If this is about the Hulkbusters then I approve -"

"It's not about- how did you find out about - you know what, nevermind." Tony ran his hand over his chest. "What I'm trying to say is that you really don't have to worry about hurting me all the time, because I'm probably the most durable team member on the Avengers roster."

"Well, the suit does have great -"

"I'm not talking about the suit," Tony interrupted. "I'm not human."

Bruce blinked at him a few times, then asked slowly, "okay, then what are you?"

Tony blushed.

"Um... It might be easier just to show you." He walked to a more open section of the lab and shifted into a huge red dragon. Bruce blinked. He sniffed a few times like a dog catching a scent and walked calmly over to the engineer-turned-giant reptile.

 "This is why you aren't afraid of Hulk?" He asked after a while of calmly taking in the scales, wings, talons, and barbed tail.

 "Yeah," dragon-Tony replied. "Pretty hard to be afraid of someone who can't hurt me."

"But the arc reactor?" Bruce asked. "How?"

 "The housing has an organic component that is flexible enough not to hurt me as I shift." He shifted back to his human self in his AC/DC shirt and jeans.

 Bruce continued to stare at him for a little while, then turned back to his microscope. 

"Well, do you want to help me with this radiation experiment? I think we need to recalibrate the output numbers based on the density of the organic matter. It's fluxuating throughout because the temperature isn't staying constant. "

Tony smiled as he joined in the scientific banter, his hand patting the spectacled scientist on the shoulder.

That went easier than he thought it would.

.................

Natasha and Clint dragged themselves through the front door, each carrying a single black duffel bag and looking like a pair of wet cats.

"I'm taking a hot shower and going to bed," Clint complained. "I feel like I'm starting to grow fungus." He pitched his voice higher. "It'll be an easy op. Buenos Aires has beautiful weather this time of year." He rolled his eyes at his partner. "Five days in the rainforest, Nat, and we come back to New York and it's raining."

 "Oh, hush," Natasha admonished. "At least it was warm."

"Right, because cold and wet is enough to give me pneumonia, but hot and wet just makes me grow fungus." He nodded to the camera in the corner of the elevator as the doors opened for them.

 "Thank you, JARVIS," Natasha said as they stepped into the elevator car. "Anything exciting happen when we were gone?"

 "Sir has set off the fire alarm of three times, twice attempting to cook, once in the lab. Captain Rogers has been marathon watching black and white films from his youth. Also, SHIELD  sent over a new liason and he will be residing on the floor below yours."

Nat and Clint shared a look.

 "JARVIS, who is our new liaison? Do you think he will stay?" Natasha asked.

"Please let it not be Sitwell. We don't get along and close quarters. Apparently I get on his nerves," Clint smiled a crooked grin and Natasha punched him lightly and the shoulder. The doors opened to the penthouse floor and they both looked around before asking, "JARVIS, I thought we said we wanted showers?"

" I said I wanted you to report to me first, but maybe showers would be a good idea." Agent Coulson stood up from his place on the sofa surrounded by piles of paperwork.

"Fury," Natasha sighed. 

 "Rumors of my death were exaggerated, I'm afraid," he said with a wry smirk. "They wanted to make sure I was truly better before they sent me back into the field."

Clint dropped his bag and bounded across the room to give the man a damp hug.

"I'm so glad you aren't dead, Sir," Clint beamed. "You're the only one who could really survive running our missions anyway." Phil laughed.

 "That may be true." 

"What's true?" Tony asked as he exited the elevator.

 "A bolt of lightning is 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun." Phil said in a deadpan voice.

 "Yeah, okay." Tony said grabbing a cup of coffee from the kitchen and stalking back to the group.

"Truth time." He clapped his hands together. "Oooo! Two truths and a lie. I'm so good at this game." He plopped down next to Phil and put his feet on the coffee table.

"Ok. I am an avid collector of Captain America memorabilia, thank my old man for that one, I dislike strawberries, and I'm a giant red dragon that's over a thousand years old."

 Bruce walked over with a cup of oolong, sighed, and sat next to the inventor.

 "I'll give you a hint, he really likes strawberries, but says he doesn't because Pepper is allergic."

"So you're really a dragon?" Clint asked excited. "Awesome!"

 "You are full of surprises, Stark," Natasha says as she turns around and walks into the elevator. "I'm getting in the shower."

 "Well, that was easy." Tony sighed as Clint started poking him with kid-like excitement. 

 "Scales? Where are yours? How does it work, tail?"

 ..............

Telling Cap was really easy. 

"Hey Cap," Tony said walking into his bedroom. Steve was reading a book, Harry Potter it looked like from the cover.

 "Hey Tony," Steve said. "Do you need something?"

"Nope," Tony said sitting on the end of his bed and staring at him.

They stared at each other for about 10 minutes. Neither of them wanted to back down from their impromptu staring contest.

 "I'm a dragon," Tony said after a quick intake of breath.

 "Ok," Steve said.

 "Okay?" Tony asked. "Not going to be a problem?"

 "Well, you aren't going to eat me are you?" Steve asked.

"No," Tony replied.

"Ok." Steve return to reading. After a bit of time passing and Tony still didn't leave, Steve looked up over the edge of his book. "You can leave now, Norbert." 

"Alright, alright, I'm going!"

Tony was already out the door when Steve slammed his book down and yelled after him, "Wait! What about Howard?" He took off running after the genius. "Tony!"

...............

 "My friends! It is good to once again walk among you! How goes it here in the Tower of Stark?" Thor exclaimed as he walked in from the landing platform. The others were all staring at Tony who had shifted at the unexpected crash of thunder.

 "Ah! Friend Tony, I see you wear another skin this evening. Tell me, are many of your kind still residing on Midgard? We had thought the sky-wyrms of old had all been felled by mighty warriors."

 Thor ran a hand over Tony's head in a soothing manner. At his growl-like purr, the other Avengers laughed. 

"I haven't met another in a few hundred years," dragon-Tony replied. "Besides my father, I mean. But he died a few decades ago. Not many know, outside this room, that I am _NOT_ human." He shrugged. "Can't be too many, or I would have run into a few before with all the traveling I do. We can sense each other, you know?"

Thor nodded his head and turned to the rest of his friends.

"I have come to feast! Heimdal has told me of the continued life of my shield brother, the Son of Coul. We must celebrate this joyous occasion!"

A few hours later when Phil sank next to the scaly inventor, he gave the dragon a pat on the head.

 "That wasn't hard, was it?"

Dragon-Tony wrapped a supportive wing around the agent as he fell asleep. Looking around the room, Tony realized that these laughing people, his friends, were the gems of most worth in his hoard: his family.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This started as a Tony&Phil friendship fic, then I became intrigued with the idea that the team wouldn't think it a big deal that Tony's a dragon. They've seen so many strange things in the world, this is almost normal. Then it morphed into team as hoard/ team as family.
> 
> This took me about 6 hours to write and 7 hours to edit. (Editing is frustrating! )
> 
> I hope you've enjoyed it!


End file.
